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Phytotechnology with Biomass Production
Zhang et al. (2020) applied mixed planting of Miscanthus, Masson pine,
and Bamboo for phytoremediation of a mining area. After 3 years of cultivation, the abundance of the mixed vegetation was tremendously higher,
and microflora in remediated soil was larger in comparison with the control
one. Miscanthus significantly reduces the release of NO x and increases the
absorbing capacity for CH 4 . The net release of greenhouse gases was reduced
to an extent of 4.08 t CO 2 -eq per hectare per year (Mi et al., 2018).
In the long run during Miscanthus cultivation, soil carbon sequestration
could be significantly different (Holder et al., 2019). During one life cycle (15
years), Miscanthus may release twice the amount of greenhouse gas in comparison to permanent grassland. Compared to the grassland soils, the surface
soils of Miscanthus fields tend to have a risk of acidification due to higher
concentrations of P and K (Hu et al., 2018). Therefore, when evaluating the
impacts of Miscanthus cultivation, soil characteristics and soil organic carbon stability should be taken into consideration in the long-term perspective.
2.6 Miscanthus Phytotechnology in Action
2.6.1 M. × giganteus Application for Phytoremediation of Trace
Elements’ Contaminated Mining Soil, Tekeli, Kazakhstan
The research soil was sampled around the Tekeli Mining and Processing
Complex of “Kazzinc”, Kazakhstan. Soil was contaminated by trace
elements in concentrations that exceeded the maximum permissible levels
in Kazakhstan, i.e., the exceeding for Pb was in 29 times, As – 5 times, Zn –
11 times, Sr – 22 times, Cu – 13 times. Research soil belonged to saline and
sandy types; its pH (water) ranged from 8.3 to 9.9 (Nurzhanova et al., 2019).
The experiment lasted two vegetation seasons. During the experiment soil
and M. × giganteus tissues (root, stems, and leaves) were analyzed for the content of eleven trace elements: As, Pb, Zn, Co, Ni, Cr, Cu, Sr, Mn, V, and U. These
elements mainly accumulated in the M. × giganteus root system. Accumulation
of Zn, Sr, and Mn was higher than others (Figure 2.8). M. × giganteus behaved
as an excluder (BСF and TLF values are lower than 1) preferentially accumulating the observed trace elements in roots; however, in relation to Mn, Sr, and
Zn the plant acted as extractor (BСF < 1 and TLF ≥ 1) (Nurzhanova et al., 2019).
2.6.2 M. × giganteus Application for Phytoremediation of PostIndustrial Soil Contaminated with Trace Elements, Bakar, Croatia
This experiment was based on monitoring of M. × giganteus phytoremediation
potential in relation to post-industrial soil of Rijeka-Bakar industrial zone,
Croatia, which was contaminated by different trace elements (Pidlisnyuk
et al., 2020b). The biomass parameters and concentrations of Ti, Mn, Fe, Cu,